LOGIN

North dominates the PKRA Youth World Championships in Costa Brava!

Bay of roses on the Costa Brava was the venue for the PKRA youth world championships from 2-6th July. Ideally situated with daily thermal onshore winds & the event run from a huge campsite which was also the sponsor - camping la Ballena Alegra. Age categories were 8-14 and 14- 16 in boys and girls which meant there were 4 world titles up for grabs.

17 countries were represented with 43 riders registered for this 1st PKRA youth freestyle championships. Winds allowed the 8-14 category to be on their 7- 10mtr kites during their heats for the first couple of days. North Kiteboarding rider from the Phillipeans - Christian Tio showed huge style with committement and finished this event in 5th place. Uk north riders - Guy and Tom Bridge came from different sides of the freestyle ladder to eventually meet in the final for a superb close show with the judging now scoring 12 attempts with the best 5 counting. Tom Bridge (12 years old) scored 35 with his highest scoring move being a 7.76 with a double hinterberger pass. This beat Guy on 20 points who at age 13 was riding powered in straps with the NKB Select. Tom takes his first world title and shares the celebration with his older brother!

Day 4 and 5 saw the 14 - 16 category of the boys, riding on their biggest kites. Execution continues to play a huge role in the overall result and it showed that many riders had been really working on their skills to show them to the judges. Since the ladder did not get completed a joint 5th place went to team mates Jan Novotny from chech republic and Manu de Pfyffer from Spain while another world title for North Kiteboarding was earned. This one went to european champion - Jérôme Cloetens from Spain. As the single elimination did not get finished he shared this title with Font.

Youth race world champion, older brother Ollie Bridge had a blinding heat on his 14mtr Vegas, but got kicked out of the singles so this put an end to this championship for him for this time.

This PKRA event showed the huge talent amongst the youth and the potential of the North Kiteboarding youth team. Congrats to the the 2 new youth freestyle champions - Jérôme Cloetens and Tom Bridge